Wireless modem module server system

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method for managing data for a wireless device, which includes a first memory for storing received data of a wireless device, a second memory for storing a network operational file, the operational file consisting of instructions for selecting a destination using a wireless module of the wireless device, and instruction steps for operating the network operational file for sending the received data using the wireless module to the selected destination.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED DOCUMENTS

This application incorporates herein by reference U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/______, of Akihiko Toyoshima, for SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR ACTIVATION OF A WIRELESS MODULE, filed Oct. 5, 2001 (Sony IPD50R4257.01); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/______, of AkhikoToyoshima, for HOME NETWORK USING WIRELESS MODULE, filed Oct. ______,2001 (Sony IPD No. 50P4257.02) U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/______, of Akhiko Toyoshima, for MULTIPLE WIRELESS FORMAT PHONESYSTEM AND METHOD, filed Oct. 5, 2001 (Sony IPD No. 50P4257.03); U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/______, of Akihiko Toyoshima, forWIRELESS MODULE SECURITY SYSTEM AND METHOD, filed Oct. 5, 2001 (Sony IPD50R4257.05), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/______, of AkihikoToyoshima, for A DEFAULT PORTAL SITE ACCESS WITH WIRELESS MODULE, filedOct. ______, 2001 (Sony IPD 50R4257.06); and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/______, of Akihiko Toyoshima, for SYSTEM, METHOD ANDAPPARATUS FOR EMBEDDED FIRMWARE CODE UPDATE, filed Oct. 5, 2001 (SonyIPD 50R4257.07); and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/928,582, ofBaranowski, et al.; for WIRELESS MODULE, filed Aug. 13, 2001 (Sony IPD50N3390); and Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/240,001; ofJuan, et al, for PORTABLE WIRELESS MODEM, filed Oct. 13, 2000 (Sony IPD50P4257), the benefit whose priority date is hereby claimed.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction of the patent document or thepatent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Officepatent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rightswhatsoever.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a removable wireless modem module and datastorage. More particularly, this invention relates to a host datastorage, wireless transmission module, and the efficient memoryallocation scheme for transferring data between the wireless memorymodule to the host data storage.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Data at a remote wireless device, such as a digital camera, mobiletelephone, PDA, or the like may be transferred to and utilized on a homecomputer and to be incorporated into e-mail documents, e-mails, and sentto the World Wide Web.

Generally, data is copied to the personal computer or transmitted viae-mail using an on-line internet service provider via a modem from theuser's personal computer. These methods take time and involve multi-stepprocedures. It would be desirable to immediately share pictures or dataacquired by a remote wireless device with friends or relatives.

Moreover, it is desirable to transmit data from a location withoutpersonal computer access, to free up storage at the mobile device, inessence, a more efficient memory allocation system, whereby requiringless interchanging of memory module, as the memory storage device andutilizing a wide variety of connection means to on-line services, suchas America On Line, internet service provider's, and other services.Since each of these services requires an account name, password, etc.,and local telephone connections, therefore, such a system as described,would require automatic modifications to include all of these requiredsettings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Currently, it is an object of the present invention to provide anelectronic mobile wireless device for collecting data at a remotelocation and transferring the data to a storage at a host location.

As shown in FIG. 1 of the related art, a remote device 25 of a mobilehost 10 includes a wireless module 20, a memory module 15 and may alsoinclude a memory module such as a Sony Memory Stick, when the MemoryStick is full, another memory stick will be interchanged therein. Thedata at the remote device will be transmitted to the base station 40 andfurther transmitted to a storage server 60 thorough the internet via arouter device 50.

Such storage facilities 70 located at the storage server may include,for example, Sony's Image Station, or America On-Line's “Get Pictures”,and Yahoo Pictures, etc.. In an alternate manner the Memory Stick withthe data will be decoupled from a remote device and coupled to thecomputer (not shown) with a memory stick slot and internet connectivity.

The present invention is directed to a system and method that provides away of directly storing at least a portion of collected data to anexternal host memory system.

The wireless modem device provides a conveniently mobile device whichreceives data and transfers that data in real time to a separate storageservice at a remote location.

Hence, the present invention fulfills a need for mobile devices ofacting as a buffer memory device that periodically transfers data to anexternal storage memory, which can easily be accessed by a plurality ofhost processes for processing the collected data.

Further, since the external storage memory already exists for use byother device functions, utilizing the unused space of the externaldevice memory increases overall hardware efficiency.

In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to a system formanaging data generated by mobile source or sources and includes a hostsystem with a storage unit, wherein the host unit and storage unit iscoupled by a wireless modem so as to operate periodically to receivedata from one or more mobile devices, transfer the data at apredetermined point determined by a threshold (i.e., storage capacity,etc.), and empty the redundant data in the mobile unit when a transferof data is completed.

In another embodiment, the present invention is directed to a method formanaging data in a mobile device, including receiving data from one ormore sources to a host device, and storing that data in a memory sticklike device within the host device, transferring the data from thememory stick device to a location upon reaching a predeterminedcondition, and then repeating the process. Further, if the data which isaddressed at the mobile device, and the integrated available memory issufficient or near capacity, the data can be transferred immediately toserver device where such data can be easily retrieved.

The features of the invention believed to be novel are set forth withparticularity in the appended claims. The invention itself however, bothas to organization and method of operation, together with furtherobjects and advantages thereof, may be best understood by reference tothe following description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The following detailed description, given by way of example, and notintended to limit the present invention solely thereto, will best beunderstood in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram illustrating an overview of a relateddevice.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the wireless module.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram overview of an illustrated embodiment of asystem according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram overview of a system according to thepresent invention, which includes a data collection function.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram overview of a system according to thepresent invention, which includes the threshold space determinationfunctionality according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram overview of a system according to thepresent invention, which includes a data flow of transmitting data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

While the present invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to a preferred embodiment(s), it will be understood thatvarious changes and modifications may be made without departing from thespirit and scope of this invention. It is intended that the appendedclaims be interpreted to cover the embodiments described herein and allequivalents thereto.

Turning to FIG. 2, a system block diagram of the wireless module isshown. The wireless module 100 includes an antenna 110 connected to atransceiver circuit. The transceiver circuit 115 is made up of aduplexer 120, a transmitter 130, and a receiver 140 connected therein.The transmitter 120 and receiver 140 of the transceiver circuit areconnected to a baseband signal processor circuit 150. The basebandsignal processor circuit 150 is connected to a microprocessor 170, whichare in turn connected to memories (160) and to an interface input/output(I/O) 180. A host or peripheral unit/device is also used to connect tothe wireless module 100 via interface I/O (180).

In a receive mode operation, wireless module 100 receives signalscontaining data packets via antenna 110 and forwards the receivedsignals and data packets to the duplexer 120, through receiver 140, andto the baseband signal processor circuit 150. The data packets are thenforwarded to microprocessor 170 and through interface I/O to the host.For example, the host device may be a PC, laptop, PDA, wirelesstelephone, or any other type of device or unit which receives the datapackets/received signals.

In a transmit mode operation, the wireless module 100 receives data frommemory and the wireless module 100 then transmits data packets utilizingat least one wireless format, including, but not limited to, CDMA one,CDMA 2000 1x/3x, 1xEv DO, W-CDMA, GSM, GPRS, (dedicated short-rangecommunications, or D.S.R.C) and the like.

The baseband signal processor 150 also includes amodulation/demodulation (hereinafter “modulation”) unit (not shown)connected to a data transfer unit. The modulation unit converts thereceived signals to a baseband signal and supplies the demodulatedbaseband signal to the data transfer unit where data packets can beextracted, e.g., an audio signal, a video signal, and control signals,from the received signals. The data transfer unit also sends theextracted data packets to microprocessor 170. When the host transmitssignals containing data packets, the modulation unit converts the datapackets into transmission signals which are sent to data transfer unitand to the transmitter or receiver.

The baseband signal processor 150 includes an optional datapacketize/depacketize unit (not shown) for packetizing/depacketizingtransmission signals and received signals prior to sending transmissionsignals and received signals to transceiver circuit and microprocessor170.

The baseband signal processor 150 also includes an error correction unit(not shown) for correcting data error prior to communication data totransceiver circuit and microprocessor 170.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a system block diagram of the present inventionis shown and includes a host base station 240, router 250, terminal 280,storage server 260 and storage device 270. The wireless module 100, iscoupled to a mobile host unit 210, which has a wireless communicationsinterface 230 to the host bast station 240.

A microprocessor (not shown) controls the mobile device 210, which iscoupled to the communications wireless modem 100. The microprocessorcontrols the operation of the wireless device 100 and the interchangesof data through the communication coupling 230, which directs theoperation of the host base station 240.

When the mobile device 210 is purchased, it is provided with a softwareapplication, located on a disk for example, providing the host basestation 240 software that enables the user to provide the specifiedinternet service provider, network addresses, families, friends,associates, related accounts, such as billing information. The user canalso select the storage server 260, or the storage device 270, dependingon the kind of mobile device being used.

Alternate the application software may be downloaded, via a wirelesscoupling or a memory card reader, to a removable memory module, whichcan be coupled to the mobile device, or can simply be received by themobile device through a wireless coupling or a USB connection or thelike.

Further, the data can be downloaded to the mobile device 210 via thehost base station 240 and written to the mobile device's internal memoryor their removable memory card in the internal device.

The wireless module of the mobile device can disconnect the mobiledevice from the host base station, so a user can operate the mobiledevice. For example, if the mobile device is a camera, the user can takenumerous pictures, which are either stored in the internal memory of thememory card of the camera, or in both of the camera memory and thewireless module memory. After taking pictures, the user would review thepictures, i.e., scroll through the images, and select the desiredpictures that are to be sent for printing, e-mailing or making into analbum, and compose the order using a set of options. Selections can bemade by utilizing a series of command options that would be included oractivated by a keypad interface on the mobile device. This user filewill then be stored in the internal memory mobile device or the wirelessdetachable memory module.

When the digital camera, for instance, does not have enough memoryspace, the host would transfer the data to the storage server, so thedigital camera's memory is increased. Also, a threshold indicator couldindicate that a transfer operation is taking place. Upon this transferoperation, the memory in the digital camera would become available, andthe data now stored in the storage device at a remote location.

For printing digital photographs, the user would select quantity, printsize and quantity level of the images to be printed. For example, a usermight choose standard images or enlarged images. The print order isspecified in a utilization file that identifies the order, whichincludes pointers to the image files that store the required printorder. The host base station 240 would download the image data to astorage server 260 and the data would be stored in a storage device 270,and then be applied to a web-based application such as the Sony ImageStation, Yahoo Pictures, AOL Get Pictures, etc.. Therein the user couldfurther redefine the kind of print operations. This would includedetermining the quantity, quality and which images are to be printed.The user would then be able to continue taking more photographs usingthe mobile device.

Further, the mobile device may include a send command (real-timecommand), which would enable the user to transmit the images to specifice-mail (via the server) addresses using appropriate communicationsprotocol, in essence, email to, etc. This would enable friends andrelatives to receive e-mail photographs in real-time or close toreal-time transmission.

FIG. 4 describes a memory allocation scheme in which the presentinvention can be implemented. Additionally, data is received at 320 andat step 330 the memory device size is assessed. It should be understoodthat the size of the memory device will vary, depending on the number ofstorage bytes available. Presently, it can store either a 32 k bytes, 64k bytes, 128 k bytes, or 256 k bytes, but of course this can beincreased.

Upon achieving a predetermined level based on the memory size and theparticular static mode, data forwarding signals are sent to the hostserver, and at step 340, the data is transmitted from the mobile devicethrough an interface to the host server. Alternatively, at step 350,data receivable at the mobile device can be sent by the base station.

In another mode of operation, the status of the mobile device is firstdetermined, and when it is available, the forward data server isactuated and the data is transferred to the external memory storage.

The mobile host is notified that data is to be received. It will checkif the received data has been received fully. If it is acceptable, themobile host will receive the data to the memory device inside the mobilehost unit or attach memory device. However, if it cannot receive suchmemory due to memory space or other reasons, the mobile host willrequest that the data be forwarded to a storage server. Moreimportantly, depending on how the data is transferred, the base stationwill receive the data once and then be transferred to the server.

FIG. 5 shows data flow diagram on transmitting, and ascertainingtherein, if there is enough data space within the mobile module. In thisparticular case, the mobile host device has a program which checks theamount of space allocated. Depending on the threshold settings at step420, a decision can be made whether to store data internally 430, oralternatively, transmit data to a server 440.

FIG. 6 determines host inquiries 510 from the host base station. Theserver returns stored files in step 520. Accordingly, this is simply away of responding to base station host updates.

Thus it is apparent that in accordance with the present invention, anapparatus that fully satisfies the objective, aims and advantages is setforth above. While the invention has been described in conjunction withspecific embodiments, it is evident that many alternatives,modifications, permutations and variations will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art in light of the foregoing description. Accordingly,it is intended that the present invention embrace all such alternatives,modifications and variations as fall within the scope of the appendedclaims.

1-31. (canceled)
 32. A device, comprising: a digital camera module; awireless transceiver removably coupled to the device; and a memory forstoring digital photographs from the digital camera module, wherein datais sent using the wireless transceiver to a secondary device and/orlocation via a network, and the device includes an indication of someaspect of a transfer operation.
 33. The device of claim 32, wherein thememory is a first memory and the device includes a second memory locatedon the wireless transceiver.
 34. The device of claim 32, comprising aprocessor executing a network operational file configured for the deviceand a selected destination.
 35. The device of claim 32, wherein thewireless transceiver is caused to send data on the memory responsive toa determination that an amount of data on the memory exceeds apredetermined threshold.
 36. The device of claim 35, wherein thewireless transceiver is caused to send data on the memory in real timeto a selected destination.
 37. The device of claim 32, wherein a hostcommunicatively coupled to the device can send data via the wirelesstransceiver to the device.
 38. The device of claim 37, wherein the hostcan send data in real time via the wireless transceiver to the wirelessdevice.
 39. The device of claim 32, wherein the device being is adigital camera, PDA, laptop, MP3 player, or a wireless flash memorydevice.
 40. The device of claim 32, wherein the device is connectable toan ISDN, Cellular or DSP network.
 41. The device of claim 32, whereinthe wireless transceiver integrated into the device.